Thursday, June 30, 2011

Slow Learners?

Kvitova beats Azarenka, Sharapova beats Lisicki, to advance to the Wimbledon finals! What is the world coming to?

Sometimes I wonder where certain people have been for the past two and a half years. Take Senator Schumer, for example, who has just now suggested the motive for Republican intransigence might have to do with their deliberate attempt to undermine economic recovery to score political points. This suggestion was also indicated as possible by Senator Durbin. Like, where have these two been up until now? When President Obama was elected Republicans announced they would be the party of “no,” and they have been exactly that all during Obama’s term in office. Subsequently Republicans announced their primary goal was to make Obama a one term President. How is it that it took these Democratic Senators so long to figure this out? How can they think it “may be” what they are doing? President Obama is just as bad when it comes to being a slow learner. He has tried and tried to compromise with Republicans, to go far beyond even reasonable compromise to get some bipartisanship, and he has failed at every turn, they have spurned his every attempt. But he still seems to believe that when it comes right down to it the Republicans will come to their senses and “do the right thing” (with respect to the debt ceiling). I sincerely hope he is right, but if he proves to be right about their presumed cooperation it will not be because they wanted to do the right thing or agree to a bipartisan compromise. It will be because they see it as in their best interest to do something they basically would rather not do. Obama seems to be constitutionally unable to believe that evil exists, that people can be so base, so unbelievably unpatriotic. Well, they are. There are mild hints now that he might finally becoming around to the reality of politics in the current hate Obama climate (he is Black, you know).

I do not like to believe that Democrats are a bit slow “upstairs,” or they are in fact slow learners, but how does one explain this seeming recent “Eureka” moment? The only other explanation I can think of is that they have simply been unable to believe that anyone who purports to be a patriotic American politician could possibly be so venal, would be so determined to bring down a President they would be willing to simply refuse to cooperate in the governing of our country and even risk financial meltdown. I, too, would like to believe that when it comes right down to it Republicans will cave and agree to lift the debt limit, but given the likes of Michelle Bachmann, Eric Kantor, and Mitch McConnell, l wouldn’t bet on it.

We are now using drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and perhaps elsewhere for all I know. I wonder if anyone has truly considered the implications of this. I mean, is it the case that the U.S., having a technology that most other nations lack, can just try to control what goes on elsewhere by not even having to provide “boots on the ground?” Is this what the future is going to look like? It seems obvious to me that eventually some other countries are going to develop drones, so are we going to have drones flying back and forth around the world killing people indiscriminately? This kind of “warfare” terrifies me, not because I will be a victim, but because it presents a world potentially little different than Star Wars, a war between technologically sophisticated societies vying for control of planet earth. I think the use of drones, as we are currently using them, is absolutely immoral. They, along with poison gas and other such weapons should be immediately banned. Just imagine a bunch of nerds sitting around in Las Vegas directing their drones around the world to kill people during breaks at the poker tables, while other nerds sitting around the Black Sea are doing the same thing in between their tanning sessions on the beaches. So much for the “manly” art of war, the “romance” of combat, the willingness to fight and die for your country and beliefs, and, in my opinion, even sanity.

Without some truly revolutionary changes in human behavior, and fairly soon, I think the human species may well be approaching extinction.